Shaping device for nail-coating elements



June 5, 1956 B. BOGOSLOWSKY 2,748,860

I SHAPING DEVICE FOR NAL-COATING ELEMENTS Filed July 5, 1952 IIIA liNvENToR SHAPING DEVICE FOR NAIL-COATING ELEMENTS Boris Bogoslowsky,Jackson Heights, N. Y.; Elizabeth Bogoslowsky, executrix of BorisBogoslowsky, deceased Application July 5, 1952, Serial No. 297,366

7 Claims. (Cl. 164-41) This invention relates to the ornamental coatingof human nails and more particularly to a novel and improved device forpre-shaping colored plastic nail coating blanks to fit fingernails ofdiiferent sizes. While the present device can be used for shapingnail-coating blanks of many diiferent types, its utility can be mostconveniently described in relation to a particular kind of blank andhence for purposes of illustration the device will be described withreference to its use in producing nail-coating elements of the typedisclosed in my copending application Serial No. 108,267, iiled August3, 1949, now Patent No. 2,688,331.

The nail-coating elements of my said co-pending application comprise athin sheet of plastic, metal foil or the like having a layer ofpressure-sensitive adhesive thereon. The nail-coating material ismounted by means of the adhesive on a suitable support such as anotherplastic, a piece of wax paper or the like. The nature of the supportused is such that when the nail-coating material and support areseparated the adhesive adheres to the nailcoating material and can bereadily stripped from the support. The nail-coating elements have acurved end, the curvature of which conforms with that of the cuticle ofa human nail. The nail coating is applied by stripping the plastic andassociated adhesive from its support, positioning the coating on a nailwith its curved end aligned with the cuticle and the opposite endoverhanging the end of the fingernail, pressing the coating materialagainst the nail to cause it to adhere thereto and filing the end of thenail to remove excess coating material.

One of the principal problems encountered in producing nail-coatingelements of this type arises out of the fact that the sizes of humanlingernails vary over a rather wide range. Since the length of thenail-coating element is adjusted after the coating is applied to thenail, no ditiiculty is encountered with respect to variations in thelength of diiferent fingernails. However, in order to take care of theproblem of variations in the widths of different fingernails, it isnecessary to produce the nail-coating elements in a variety of differentwidths, thus complicating the manufacture and distribution of suchnail-coating elements.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide ashaping device that can be conveniently employed by the user of thenail-coating material to shape a nail-coating blank to fit any sizeiinger-or-toe-nail. It is another object of the invention to provide adevice of this kind that is simple and inexpensive to construct. it isstill another object of the invention to provide a device that isreadily adjustable to produce nail coatings in a wide variety of sizesso that the nail-coating material can be accurately tted to thedifferent fingeror toe-nails. Other objects of the invention will be inpart obvious and in part pointed out hereafter.

nited States Patent! i rice The many objects and advantages of thepresent invention can best be understood and appreciated by reference tothe accompanying drawing which shows a device incorporating a preferredembodiment of the present invention and wherein:

Figure 1 is a general perspective View of the casing showing the gaugingslot and cooperating pivoted shearing member;

Figure 2 is a vertical section taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1 andshowing particularly the pivotal mounting of the shearing member;

Figure 3 is a vertical section taken on the line 3 3 of Figure 2 andshowing particularly the adjustable abutment that defines one of theinner edges of the gauging slot;

Figure 4 is a vertical section taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3 andshowing a nail-coating blank positioned against the adjustable abutmentand also the mode of adjustment of the adjustable abutment;

Figure 5 is a horizontal section taken on the line 5 5 of Figure 3 andfurther showing the adjustable abutment of the gauging slot;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of a nail-coating blank suitable for usewith the present device;

Figure 7 is a perspective View of the blank or" Figure 6 folded forinsertion in the gauging slot; and

Figure 8 is a perspective View of a trimmed blank after it has beenremoved from the gauging slot and opened up.

Referring to the drawings and more particularly to Figures l and 2, thenumeral 1G generally designates a casing preferably made of plastic andadapted to contain a supply of nail-coating blanks to be shaped. Thecasing 10 is provided with a pvoted cover 12. Extending across the upperportion of casing 10 there is a wall member le of L-shaped cross-sectionthat denes with the casing a chamber 16.

Referring to Figures l and 3, formed within the chamber 16 there is ashelf 18 that cooperates with the top 26 of casing 10 to deiine agauging slot 22. As best shown in Figure l, the open edge of slot 22extends along a part of the side and one end of casing 10. The lateralextent of gauging slot 22 is further defined (see Fig. 5) by a fixedabutment 24 and an adjustable abutment 26.

Reverting to Fig. 1, extending around one end of the casing 10, near thetop thereof, there is a U-shaped metal band 28, the upper edge 30 ofwhich is flush with the top of shelf 18. As more fully explainedhereafter, the upper edge 30 of band 28 forms a shaping edge againstwhich the nail-coating blank is trimmed. The ends of the U-shaped band28 are secured to the casing by a pin 32 that extends through thechamber 16 and forms a pivotal mounting for a U-shaped shearing member34, which, as best shown in Fig. l, has a cutting edge 3e adapted toco-operate with the shaping edge 30 of metal band 23 to cut a blankpositioned therebetween. Still referring to Fig. 1, the end portion 38of cutting edge 36 slopes upwardly somewhat to form an acute angle withthe corresponding portion of shaping edge 33 to facilitate cutting ofthe material of the blank at the end thereof. The shearing member 34 isprovided with a tab 35 by means of which it can be depressed to cut ablank positioned in slot 22.

The mode of adjustment of the adjustable abutment 26 is best shown inFigure 4 of the drawings. Referring to Figure 4, rotatably mounted inthe side walls of chamber 16, there is a threaded rod 40 that is ofreduced diameter at the points where it passes through walls of thechamber 16 to form shoulders 42 that cooperate with o the walls of thechamber to prevent axial movement of rod 40. The rod 40 is threadedthrough a depending vertical arm 43 of the abutment 26 and is providedoutside the casing 10 with a knob 44 by means of which it can be rotatedto adjust the position of abutment 26 with respect to the shaping edge30.

Referring now to Figure 6 of the drawing. The nailcoating blank thereshown comprises a thin piece of colored plastic 46 which has a layer ofpressure-sensitive adhesive on its under side by means of which it ismounted on a support 48. A flap 50 of the plastic layer 46 is left freefrom adhesive to facilitate separation of the plastic from its support.The blank of Figure 6 is folded along the dotted line to give thestructure shown in l Figure 7 and is then inserted in the present devicefor cutting along the dotted line of Figure 7. Thereafter, the portionof the blank remaining in the slot 22 is withdrawn and opened up to givethe structure shown in Fig. 8. After shaping, the plastic layer 46 isremoved from the support 48 by grasping flap 50 and pulling the .two

layers apart. The plastic layer 46 is then applied to the finger-nail aspreviously described herein and more fully described in my co-pendingapplication Serial No. 108,267 referred to above.

In using the present device, the abutment 26 is first positioned in suchmanner that the distance between outer surface of shaping edge 30 andthe proximate surface of abutment 26 is one-half the desired width ofthe nailcoating element. With the shearing member 34 in raised positionas in Figure l, a blank folded as shown in Figure 7 is inserted in theslot 22 in such manner that the end having the iiap 50 bears against thefixed abutment 24 and the fold bears against the abutment 26 (see Figure4). As shown in Figures 1 and 4, the top 20 of casing 10 is providedwith a series of reference lines 52 to which suitable referencecharacters can be applied to facilitate proper positioning of theabutment 26 with respect to the shaping edge 30 to produce the desiredwidth of nailcoating element.

When the nail-coating blank has been inserted in slot 22, the shearingmember 34 is pressed downwardly by manual pressure exerted on the tab 35and the portion of the blank extending outwardly from the shaping edge30 is trimmed off. As best shown in Figure 5, the shaping edge 30 has aconfiguration corresponding to one-half the cuticle of a finger-nail andsince the blank is folded before insertion in slot 22, both sides andthe curved end of the blank are cut to the proper shape in a singleoperation. As previously pointed out, the end 38 of cutting edge 36forms an acute angle with the end portion of shaping edge 30 and thus aclean cut is achieved not only along the side portions of thenail-coating element but also along the curved end as well.

From the foregoing description it should be apparent that the presentinvention provides a structure capable of achieving the several objectsoutlined at the beginning of the present specification. Thus the presentdevice is simple to construct and operate and can be easily adjusted toproduce nail-coating elements having any desired width within the rangenormally encountered in human nails. It is, of course, to be understoodthat the foregoing description is illustrative only and that numerouschanges can be made in the specific embodiment disclosed withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appendedclaims.

What I claim as new is:

1. Apparatus for shaping a nail-coating blank comprising, incombination, a support having a gauging slot formed therein adapted toreceive a nailcoating blank for shaping, said slot being essentiallydefined by a fixed abutment, an adjustable abutment and a shaping edgehaving a configuration substantially conforming with one side andadjacent half of the curve of the cuticle of a human nail, and ashearing member pivotally secured to said support, said shearing memberhaving a cutting 4 edge positioned to cooperate with the shaping edge ofsaid slot upon pivotal movement of said shearing member to cut offexcess portions of a nail-coating blank that has been positioned in saidslot against said two abutments.

2. Apparatus for shaping a nail-coating blank comprising, incombination, a support having an elongated gauging slot formed thereinadapted to receive a nailcoating blank for shaping, the opening of saidslot being curved to form a shaping edge and the interior of said slotbeing provided with a pair of abutments substantially perpendicular toeach other, one of said abutments being adjustable to selectivelyposition a blank to be shaped with respect to said shaping edge, and ashearing mem ber pivotally secured to said support and having a curvedcutting edge positioned to cooperate with the shaping edge of said sloton pivotal movement of said shearing member to cut ott excess portionsof a nail-coating blank that has been positioned in said slot againstsaid two abutments.

3. Shaping apparatus according to claim 2 and wherein a threaded rod isrotatably mounted in said support and threaded through said adjustableabutment and said rod is provided with a knob, whereby manual rotationof said knob moves said adjustable abutment with respect to said shapingedge.

4. Apparatus for shaping a nail-coating blank comprising, incombination, a support having a generally rectangular gauging slotformed therein, the opening of said slot extending around two sides ofsaid rectangle to form a shaping edge, the other two sides of saidrectangle being defined by a fixed abutment and a relatively longadjustable abutment, and a shearing member pivotally secured to saidsupport, said shearing member having a cutting edge positioned tocooperate with the shaping edge of said slot upon pivotal movement ofsaid shearing member to cut oti excess portions of a nail-coating blankthat has been positioned in said slot against said abutment, saidadjustable abutment being substantially parallel to the longer side ofsaid shaping edge to selectively locate said blank for shaping in saidslot.

5. Shaping apparatus according to claim 4 and wherein the portion ofsaid cutting edge that cooperates with the shorter side of said shapingedge forms an acut angle with said shaping edge to facilitate cutting ofthe portion of said blank located at the short side of said shapingedge.

6. ln apparatus for shaping a nail-coating blank including a casing forcontaining a supply of blanks to be shaped, the combination of a supportmounted in said easing and having a gauging slot formed therein adaptedto receive a longitudinally folded nailcoating blank for shaping, saidslot being essentially dened by a fixed abutment, an adjustable abutmentand a shaping edge having a configuration substantially conforming witha side and adjacent half of the curve of the cuticle of a human nail,and a shearing member pivotally secured to said support, said shearingmember having a cutting edge positioned to cooperate with the shapingedge of said slot upon pivotal movement of said shearing member to cutott excess portions of a nail-coating blank that has been positioned insaid slot against said abutment, said casing being cut away to exposesaid gauging slot to permit insertion of a blank therein without openingsaid casing.

7. ln apparatus for shaping a nail-coating blank including a casing forcontaining a supply of blanks to be shaped, the combination of a supportmounted in said casing and having a gauging slot formed therein adaptedto receive a longitudinally folded nail-coating blank for shaping, saidslot being essentially defined by a fixed abutment, an adjustableabutment and a shaping edge having a configuration substantiallyconforming with a side and adjacent half of the curve of the cuticle ofa human nail, and a shearing member pivotally secured to said support,said shearing member having a cutting edge positioned to cooperate withthe shaping edge of said slot 5 6 upon pivotal movement of said shearingmember to cut References Cited in the file of this patent off excessportions of a nail-coating blank that has been UNITED STATES PATENTSpositioned in said slot against said abutment, a portion aligned tofacilitate cutting of nail-coating elements to the proper width.

